Chesapeake Energy Corporation (CHK) Shares Up Big On Large Buy Near Close

Shares of Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) were up nicely today without any specific news to move the needle. Shares had been bouncing around between red and green territory all day until a significant pop at around 1:45 p.m. sent the stock from its low of the day at $5.15 to its high of the day of $5.59 within a matter of 90 mintes or so.

Included in the action was a very large order of 600,000 shares, sparking a few investors to question whether or not news of a possible merger had been leaked. We have found nothing to back such a rumor up as of yet.

Other investors guessed that shorts may be covering or that talks about the upcoming OPEC meeting may have helped move the needle.

The stock is up 4.84% or $0.26 after the news, hitting $5.53 per share. About 17.43M shares traded hands. CHK has declined 63.78% since April 28, 2015 and is downtrending. It has underperformed by 62.16% the S&P500.

Out of 13 analysts covering Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK), 3 rate it “Buy”, 2 “Sell”, while 8 “Hold”. This means 23% are positive. $15 is the highest target while $4 is the lowest. The $9.37 average target is 69.44% above today’s ($5.53) stock price. Chesapeake Energy Corporation was the topic in 24 analyst reports since July 21, 2015 according to StockzIntelligence Inc. Sterne Agee CRT downgraded the stock on November 17 to “Neutral” rating. SunTrust maintained the shares of CHK in a report on October 19 with “Buy” rating. Finally, Citigroup maintained the stock with “Neutral” rating in a September 14 report.

The institutional sentiment decreased to 1 in Q2 2015. Its down 0.17, from 1.17 in 2015Q1. The ratio is negative, as 77 funds sold all Chesapeake Energy Corporation shares owned while 184 reduced positions. 60 funds bought stakes while 202 increased positions. They now own 603.23 million shares or 0.57% more from 599.79 million shares in 2015Q1.

Old West Investment Management Llc holds 6.19% of its portfolio in Chesapeake Energy Corporation for 796,923 shares. Karamaan Group Llc owns 502,111 shares or 5.59% of their US portfolio. Moreover, Schneider Capital Management Corp has 4.52% invested in the company for 3.15 million shares. The Tennessee-based Southeastern Asset Management Inc Tn has invested 4.52% in the stock. Sterling Investment Management Inc., a Arizona-based fund reported 502,340 shares.

Chesapeake Energy Corporation is a producer of natural gas, oil and natural gas liquids in the United States. The company has a market cap of $3.69 billion. The Firm operates in two divisions: Exploration and Production, and Marketing, Gathering and Compression. It currently has negative earnings. The exploration and production segment is responsible for finding and producing oil, natural gas and NGL.